The trial of a former Polish president charged with ordering striking workers shot in 1970 was disrupted today by a noisy demonstration outside the court.
A news agency reported the demonstrators, some from the Solidarity trade union, sang songs and read out official speeches from the communist era through loudspeakers, making so much noise that the court conducting the trial of Gen Wojciech Jaruzelski could no longer hear witnesses.
Gen Jaruzelski stands accused of having ordered that a revolt by workers, who had taken to the streets of Gdansk and Gdynia in December 1970 in protest at price rises, be put down with force.
Forty-four people were killed and several hundred injured, when Gen Jaruzelski was defence minister. He later became president of Poland and was its last under Communist rule. In 1981, he imposed martial law to suppress the Solidarity union and democracy movement, which grew out of Gdansk.
Gen Jaruzelski has pleaded not guilty to the charges and claimed that then communist party leader Mr Wladyslaw Gomulka had given the order to shoot the striking workers.
The trial of the general and six other former officers and top communist officials has proceeded slowly as the health of Gen Jaruzelski and other defendants has been poor, thereby limiting hearings to a few hours daily.
AFP